AirAsia Berhad CEO Aireen Omar said AirAsia’s “Fly-Thru” traffic had grown by almost 50% every quarter, with more and more travellers flying into Kuala Lumpur and using it as a transit hub.
She added that AirAsia was ready to work with MAHB for the benefit of the local aviation industry. However, it could not say the same about the airport operator.
“We wish to start addressing the airport terminal as LCCT2, which is the true identity of the terminal.
“This is due to the fact that MAHB has refused to admit the airport is meant for low-cost carriers.
“It clearly shows that MAHB feels LCCs (low-cost carriers) are irrelevant,” she said in a statement.
Aireen said MAHB stated that the KLIA Main Terminal Building (MTB) and klia2 are meant to be part of an integrated hub, but added that this was just talk.
An integrated hub, she explained, should include seamless connectivity between terminals to encourage passengers to interlink and stimulate travel on both full-service and low-cost carriers.
However, Aireen noted the lack of connecting trains and buses linking MTB to klia2. This clearly showed the terminals were not part of an integrated hub.
She added that passengers are charged RM2 one-way for using the only train connecting the two terminals and the train operates on a “sparse schedule”.
“This discourages travellers from moving freely between the two terminals and utilising the extensive connectivity that airlines, especially AirAsia, have created.
“We would like to propose that MAHB focus instead on a dual-hub strategy.”
Aireen said AirAsia wanted KLIA MTB to be led by the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines, supported by the One World alliance, while LCCT2 should be positioned as the region’s low-cost carrier hub.
AirAsia was also responding to MAHB Managing Director Badlisham Ghazali who said on June 21 that AirAsia or any other party may call the airport LCCT2 as this was part of freedom of speech.
Aireen added that the budget airline was aware that the official code for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), as registered with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is “KUL”.
“We have no intention to change this official code.
“For the record, when AirAsia was operating at the LCC Terminal, the airport code used was also ‘KUL’.
‘The airport terminal was, however, named “LCC Terminal” – which stood for Low-Cost Carrier Terminal.”
Aireen said AirAsia had officially written to Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai to seek his consideration to better position LCCT2 as the region’s low-cost carrier hub as the airline worked towards establishing Kuala Lumpur as the “Dubai of the East”.
Dubai has become the world’s busiest international passenger hub, knocking Heathrow off the top spot.